Public Service 26 project update

Many thanks to Matt Nawn of the Baltimore Streetcar Museum, who has sent along this update and photos detailing the restoration of Public Service Coordinated Transport 26. -Frank

Car 26 in service in 1970 - Matt Nawn Collection

The Restoration of PSCT #26

The Baltimore Streetcar Museum acquired former PSCT/TNJ/NJ Transit PCC Car #26 in February 2014 as part of the effort led by Bill Wall to find homes for the remaining PCC cars which had been stored for many years following their retirement from the Newark City Subway in August 2001.  The rationale for BSM acquiring #26 was to provide an additional car to serve the function largely provided by BSM's former SEPTA PCC Car #2168; namely, to provide a vehicle that was solid, reliable, easy to operate and easy to maintain that could handle a significant part of the day to day public operations at the museum, thus helping to conserve the older cars in the museum collection, a number of which are over 100 years old.  SEPTA #2168 has been a great success for the museum, in both filling the role of day to day operations (pre-pandemic) and in bringing in a number of new volunteers and donors.  Due to its wide carbody width, Car #26 also is an ideal vehicle to utilize with a platform mounted wheelchair lift to ensure all visitors can enjoy a vintage streetcar ride.

From 2014 until 2018, work progressed, slowly at first, to return the car to operation after many years of storage.  Thankfully, significant portions of the control wiring in Car #26 were replaced during its last decade of service, making restoration to operation quite feasible.  In order to make the car operable on BSM's wide gauge trackage, a set of SEPTA broad gauge trucks were obtained and regauged by museum volunteers from SEPTA's Philadelphia track gauge to Baltimore's even wider track gauge.  (In fact, two sets of former SEPTA trucks were on hand; one set to test the car with and a second set which was previously overhauled for use when the car is released for public operation).   The former SEPTA trucks utilized Westinghouse shaft brake actuators, and in order to use these components with the car's General Electric control system (and make the car as electrically identical to former SEPTA #2168 as possible), substantial work was performed to modify the car's control system, including replacement of a number of components and significant wiring changes.  The conversion work was substantially completed and successfully tested during a special event in November 2018.

Successful test run at BSM, November 2018. Bill Monaghan Photo.

While the electrical work was progressing, fundraising began in earnest for a carbody restoration.  To date, substantial funds have been received from museum benefactors, two local NRHS chapters, as well as grants from the 20th Century Electric Railway Foundation and the National Railway Historical Society's Heritage Grants program.  The project team developed a set specifications for an outside contractor to perform the carbody restoration and repainting, and the contract was awarded to Rail Mechanical Services, Inc. of Columbia, PA with work commencing in January 2019 following highway transport of the car from Baltimore to Columbia.

Media blasting car 26. Harry Donahue Photo.

The use of an outside contractor like RMS enabled a comprehensive restoration of the carbody, including repairs to the roof, ends, and lower carbody.  The extent of the work has included removal of the lower carbody "rub rail" for effective rust removal and fabrication and installation of new steel in any areas where deterioration was found.  A master carpenter hired directly by BSM fabricated new doors to original plans (provided by Minnesota Streetcar Museum) as well as new roofwalks and cleats.  Approximately nine layers of paint was removed from the carbody, including the original Twin City Lines yellow and cream paint, indicating this was the first time the carbody had been stripped to bare steel since the car was constructed.  The BSM project team overseeing the work involves many of the same people who managed the restoration work on SEPTA #2168, PTC #2743 (at Rockhill Trolley Museum), and the more limited restoration of sister car PSCT #6 (also at Rockhill), so the lessons learned from these projects can be applied to #26.

Michael Lawson with a restored farebox for car 26. Matt Nawn Photo.

Based upon the strong financial support of the project, the restoration scope was expanded to include the interior.  This was a fortuitous change, as disassembly and restoration of the interior enabled repairs to structural areas of the car that would otherwise have been difficult to access, as well repairs to the floor and replacement of the deteriorating auxiliary heaters.  The restoration scope included structural repairs to all of the seat frames, reupholstering of all seats (by a different vendor) with material matching what the car used prior to 1985, and replacement of all Lexan windows and restoration of the window frames (performed by a different contractor and museum volunteers).  All standee windows are being replaced with new seals and safety glass, with the glass tinted to match the green color used in both the Twin Cities as well as for many years in Newark.

Sample reupholstered seat

Structural repairs and new heaters

Rear corner and seat frame repairs

The restored car will represent its circa 1964 appearance when completed, complete with PSCT gray, blue, and off-white exterior colors; white fleet numerals, golden glow headlight, and period appropriate details and fittings.  The reasons for this era are two-fold; a 1964 appearance represents what public transit looked like shortly after Baltimore retired its last streetcars in late 1963, and it also makes the restored car slightly different in appearance from restored sister car #6 at the Rockhill Trolley Museum.  In order to present the car in authentic appearance to the maximum extent possible, museum volunteers have found and/or restored many items from this era including the correct style farebox, fare register, Public Service "TAKE ONE" boxes, builder's plate, period and location appropriate interior advertisements, along with the previously mentioned interior upholstery, replacement golden glow headlight, correct color standee windows, and carefully matched interior and exterior colors.  Additionally, the car's roof light has been removed, rock guard over the windshield removed, an original set of windshield frames has been restored, and the roof vent will be reinstalled over the front section of the roof (which had been removed when the pantograph frame was mounted on the car, itself since removed).

Repairs to the door side of the car

Repairs to the front corner of the car

New safety glass windows

The car is slated to return to BSM early in 2021 where additional electrical work, a truck swap, and final detail work not included in the restoration contract will be completed.  Barring any substantial delays due to COVID-19, a completion ceremony is planned for August 2021 to coincide with the 20th Anniversary of the car's retirement from regular service.

Interior progress as of November 2020

Along with museum benefactors and organizations providing financial support, the restoration of PSCT #26 has been fortunate to have the support of other organizations, particularly Bill Wall from Branford Electric Railway Association and the Minneapolis Streetcar Museum, as well as the retired shop foreman from the Newark City Subway.  The PSCT #26 team at Baltimore Streetcar Museum greatly appreciates the support received to date and looks forward to the future!

Exterior of car 26 as of November 2020

More information on the project can be found on YouTube here.

The second sweeper

Thanks to Bill Wall, who pointed out this post from the SubChat message board. It appears - improbably - that this week two snow sweepers left the Baltimore Streetcar Museum. Following the relocation of C127 to Scranton, the other sweeper that was being stored by BSM for someone else left Baltimore too. This second sweeper was New Jersey Transit 5246, a handsome double-truck Russell-built example built in 1921.

Car 5246 has quite a history: it was built new for the Trenton & Mercer County, making it the only survivor from that line* and a very rare survivor from the network of small New Jersey suburban lines. In 1934, following the abandonment of streetcars in Trenton, the sweeper went to the Third Avenue Railway System in New York. It only ran there 14 years before being resold again to Toronto, which operated it until 1973. At that time it was brought back to its home state of New Jersey by New Jersey Transit, the purpose being to replace NJT 5173 as the Newark Subway's snow sweeper after that car burned to its frame in 1972. (The frame of 5173, though, is still intact and the car - such as it is - is considered to be on the roster of the North Jersey Electric Railway Historical Society, or NJERHS.) Sweeper 5246 was stored - and occasionally used, I guess - on the Newark Subway system until it was transferred to the Friends of New Jersey Transportation Heritage Center (FNJTHC) in 2011. Without anywhere to put it, that group sent it to Baltimore for storage.

Car 5246 is still evidently owned by FNJTHC and supposedly the original plan was to move it from Baltimore to the Kinki-Sharyo plant in Piscataway, where other cars owned by them and NJERHS are stored. But there was said to be no room in the inn, so 5246 has now ended up back home on the Newark system for interim storage. It's now one of two cars listed under NJ Transit, joining a lone PCC that was kept as an historic relic but has not, as far as I know, seen use. And BSM, for its part, now no longer has anyone else's equipment on its property.

*Sweeper 5246 is the only car listed on the PNAERC list as ex-Trenton & Mercer County, however I'm not certain that's strictly correct. The only information I can find on T&MC's corporate history is here and it implies that T&MC was basically an operating company, with equipment owned by various subsidiaries. If that's true then Trenton Street Railway 288 would also be ex-T&MC... but to be consistent I'd likely need to change the ownership history of either 288 or 5246. Anyone know the story?

Snow sweeper relocates

 

It has been reported on RyPN that Philadelphia snow sweeper C127 has finally, after several years of waiting, been relocated to Scranton and has arrived at the Electric City Trolley Museum. The sweeper is shown above in a photo posted in the aforementioned thread.

The car in question is one of eight surviving double-truck sweepers built by Brill for Philadelphia Rapid Transit in 1923 (though despite all being essentially identical four of the eight - C127 not among them - were built as plows and soon rebuilt as sweepers). Sweeper C127 was sold to Ed Mitchell in Uniontown, PA in 1974 and was stored on his farm - most of the time under cover - until he died and his collection was sold in 2011. "Sold" may not be the right word because out of maybe 10 or 12 pieces of traction equipment he owned, the only one not to get scrapped was C127. Instead it was purchased by ECTM but, due to a lack of storage space, it was transported to Baltimore. For the last nine years it has been stored (still under cover) at BSM awaiting an indoor berth in Scranton.

The sale of Chicago Aurora & Elgin 453 to IRM last year opened up that berth, so C127 is now residing with its owners. It joins identical car C128 in Scranton; that sweeper came via the Trolley Valhalla and Buckingham Valley groups and appears rough but complete. I'm not certain what the museum's plans for the two sweepers are. ECTM has managed to acquire a pair of correct trucks from sweeper C124, which had been preserved in Grand Rapids, Ohio and was scrapped in 2018, and these trucks have already been regauged to standard gauge so that will allow C127 to be placed on live rail.

So C127 is now listed under ECTM and not under BSM (I typically list cars based on their physical location with a notation about ownership). BSM isn't sweeper-less, though; in fact of the eight preserved Philly sweepers the only one currently operational is owned by BSM, car C145, which is now undergoing a major restoration project to return it to original condition.

Baltimore Streetcar Museum updates

From our friend David Wilson at the Baltimore Streetcar Museum come some updates of projects currently underway there. First up is United Railways & Electric 1164, pictured above, a classic 1902 Brill-built open car complete with Maximum Traction trucks. This car is in the shop for roof work, including not only new canvas but some new and refurbished wood parts and copper sheathing where appropriate. Amazingly, David reports that there aren't any "extra" tack holes under the canvas, suggesting that what's being removed may be the original 1902 canvas. This car was removed from regular service very early, in 1922, at which point it was put into (presumably indoor) storage. As such it likely saw only 20 summers of use. That a car like this still exists at all is a virtual miracle.

Joining car 1164 in the shop is Baltimore Consolidated 1050, a single-truck closed car built in 1898 by Brownell. This car was retired for platform rebuilding a few years ago and this has been an on-again, off-again project that has now been resumed in earnest. The car is having both platforms rehabbed along with a general exterior restoration. Photo by David Wilson.

And last is Newark PCC 26, shown here in a 2014 photo. This car has been the subject of some recent fundraising and the payoff is now in progress, as the car has been transported to a body and paint shop in Columbia, PA. The plan is for it to remain there for a few months while its exterior is restored and then for it to return to BSM. This method of restoration is fairly unusual in traction preservation; usually the painters come to the car rather than the other way around. The results promise to be impressive.

Miscellaneous changes

There haven't been any major changes recently, but a few minor ones have been made relating to restoration progress at a couple of different museums. First, National Capital has released a photo of single-trucker 522, which has recently been cosmetically restored. More information can be found here. It had been on a Brill 21E (modified for rail grinding use) but Baltimore Streetcar Museum traded them a correct older-type Lord Baltimore truck for the car. In turn, car 4662 at BSM is supposed to have a Brill 21 but had been placed on a Lord Baltimore shop truck many decades ago. I'm not positive whether 4662 will receive 522's Brill 21 (confused yet?) but I suspect that it will get some sort of 21 truck.

And in other news, the Illinois Railway Museum has gotten "L" car 24 running for the first time since 1958. See here for photos. The car had formerly been listed on PNAERC as Chicago Rapid Transit 1024 but the restoration project which is now in its later stages has backdated the car to its earlier owner and number, Northwestern Elevated Railroad 24.